This invention is related generally to devices used in the measurement and delineation of naturally developed characteristics and formations of the human body, and more specifically to a system for reliably and accurately measuring selected anthropometric features in order to screen personnel for assignment to particularly suitable workspaces.
Anthropometry, or the body of knowledge pertaining to human body measurements, plays an important role in the design of many products. Different products, however, require differing levels of accommodation to the sizes and proportions of the human body. For instance, if the product is rather simple, the effort that is generally devoted to such accommodation is usually relatively inexpensive and successful. On the other hand, if the product is a highly complex system such as an aircraft, the attainment of a high level of accommodation almost invariably requires expensive economic and engineering trade-offs with varying levels of success. For a more detailed treatment of the inherent difficulties in aircraft design, see Kennedy, Kenneth W. "International Anthropometric Variability and Its Effect on Aircraft Cockpit Design" In: Chapanis, Alphone, Ethnic Variables in Human Factors Engineering (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975) TA 166.E83.
Fortunately in a great many cases the human body can make some accommodation to an inadequately designed system. There are, nevertheless, some instances in which very nearly all those not readily accommodated will not be able to operate an aircraft or workstation safely and efficiently. Examples are inadequate reach distance to critical hand and foot controls, inadequate ejection clearance, and excessive seat-to-canopy distance. Anthropometric dimensions have in the past been obtained through the use of anthropometers and calipers to measure the lineal and circumferential dimensions of those persons intending to fly the particular aircraft under design. Those devices, however, required skilled operators and a time-consuming process in which a number of predetermined anthropometric features were measured. A false reading could be obtained by the failure of the operator to properly position the device upon that part of the body being measured, or by failing to ascertain that the subject was properly positioned.